The Brightest Flame
by Mia-Zeklos
Summary: Ever since the Night Travellers case, Ianto has not been the same. Coda to From Out of the Rain.


**Author's Notes: This is written by a request on tumblr, and it came out a bit longer than expected, but I hope you like it – even though it would have probably been even longer if it wasn't well past midnight already. Feel free to let me know what you think!**

There was something wrong with Ianto.

Jack wasn't sure what it was, but it was constantly there – the unshared anxiety of whatever problem weighed on his heart – and it had been like that after the accident with the Travellers. The Captain had noticed back then, just a week ago, that the case had really got to him and he couldn't really understand why. They faced death on daily basis and Ianto had never been too bothered by it, but now he'd been visibly upset and it hadn't got better despite all of Jack's efforts to distract him.

Take now, for instance. Everything was supposed to be perfect. The work day was over and they'd went back to Ianto's flat for the night to watch a film and things had been going so well. They'd chosen one of Jack's favourites and despite Ianto's scepticism towards his choices in that department, they'd been relaxing after the hard day and quietly enjoying each other's company. It had been a nice change from their hectic day-to-day life and Jack had been greatly enjoying it, especially when one took into account the fact that Ianto's head was resting on his shoulder lightly and Jack had wrapped an arm around him to keep him close. Ianto had been as relaxed as he could get one moment and then tense the next, his breathing hitching.

"What is it?" Jack's voice was quiet and his arm tightened around Ianto's waist almost by instinct. "Something wrong?"

"No," Ianto mumbled after a moment. He didn't seem all right, though; not with his eyes darting around like the eyes of a trapped animal. "It's okay. I just thought I'd seen– never mind."

And that was just their entire week in a nutshell. Ianto was skittish and jumpy, constantly looking as if he was on the verge of losing his cool and freaking out. It was ridiculous and even more so because Jack had no idea what was causing it. Ianto wasn't scared easily. What could have got to him so much that it made him feel endangered in the safety of his own home?

"If there's ever a problem with, well, anything," Jack ventured, "you'll tell me, yeah?" When Ianto gave a curt nod against his shoulder and didn't say anything else, Jack pressed it further. "I mean it. Promise that you'll come to me if anything's bothering you."

"I promise." Ianto's voice was little more than a whisper and he looked for all the world like he'd rather die than have this conversation. "But I already told you, I'm fine."

Jack was unconvinced but unwilling to press the matter, given Ianto's apparent discomfort from it. "If you say so."

Without uttering another word, Ianto gave a deep sigh and leant further into Jack's embrace, his eyes closing. After a minute or two, his heartbeat and breathing calmed down and Jack smiled and petted his hair affectionately once he realised that his lover was asleep. He manoeuvred them around both be comfortable for a while and relaxed once more.

The serious conversations could wait until tomorrow.

**o.O.o**

The tension in the Hub was building by the day, Jack noted as he looked down at his team. Owen and Tosh seemed to be mostly affected by it – they disappeared on random intervals and spend equal amount of time either speaking to each other for hours or not even chancing a look in each other's direction – even if Ianto's strange paranoid state was getting worse as well. To top it off, Gwen was picking up on all of that and was starting to get irritated and snapped at everyone for everything. It was getting hard to bear and, had he been able to afford it, Jack would have given everyone a well-deserved week off.

As it was, though, the Rift demanded their attention at all times. And still, Jack ordered everyone to head home about four in the afternoon one day when Tosh and Gwen had started arguing over a lost laptop charger, Owen had thrown a coffee cup at Ianto and the Archivist had retaliated by purposefully spreading the purple blood of an autopsied alien all over the Medical Bay. There was something going on there; something wrong with his team, but Jack couldn't tell what it was. Maybe it was the tension of everything happening around them – the busy days at work, Owen's condition and Ianto's strange behaviour – but it was too much to take and he'd told everyone to get a good rest and not show up until ten tomorrow. He'd pulled Ianto to the side and, after making sure that the younger man didn't have any plans, they settled on a visit on Jack's part later into the evening.

As Jack was finally left in the silence of the empty Hub, he took out the report for the case with the Travellers and started reading through his notes, taking a look at Ianto's additions as well.

He was going to get to the bottom of this. One way or another.

**o.O.o**

"Come in, it's open," Ianto shouted when he heard the knock on the front door. He knew that it couldn't be Jack – the man had went out to buy the milk he needed to finish whatever he was cooking – and he wasn't all that surprised to see Gwen coming in. "Has something happened?"

"No," she said with a sigh, leaning against the counter. Ianto was used to her coming in and out whenever she pleased, especially since Jack's disappearance. She'd visited him for cases, for additional information on something or even just for sharing a beer, and she seemed to feel utterly comfortable in his flat. "Remember what happened to my phone today?" Ianto nodded with a wince. The accident had occurred after they'd finally captured the alien – it had lashed out at Gwen, making her drop the phone she'd been holding and it had hit a brick wall on the other side of the street. "Think you could fix it?"

"Sure," Ianto shrugged. "I'm surprised you didn't ask Tosh, though."

"Oh, she's out," Gwen said and Ianto threw her an interested glance over his shoulder. He was always amazed at her ability to get to the bottom of every gossip there was, but he was also amused to hear everything that happened in the Hub. "With Owen," she added when she caught his eye and Ianto's smile widened. He'd want to hear more about that tomorrow, when he'd feel better. Or so he hoped. Because he could say anything, though, Gwen nodded towards the stove. "And what would that be?"

Ianto made a helpless grimace. "Jack told me to stir this about ten minutes ago when he went out for groceries."

"I don't think it actually needs to be stirred for that long," Gwen commented, but she didn't seem too sure. If there was one thing they shared, it was their complete incompetence in the kitchen and their gratitude for Rhys's and Jack's respective abilities there. "What's up with you these days?"

The change of topic was sudden, but unsurprising, Ianto thought forlornly. He wasn't sure if she'd followed Jack's initiative of pointless concern over him or if she had noticed something on her own, but whatever the case, he tried to avoid answering. "What do you mean?"

Gwen gave a small shrug. "I'm not sure. It's just– you're nervous and it's as if something scares you constantly, even when there's nothing. No one says anything, but we're worried."

Ianto shifted uncomfortably in his place. The more they talked of it, the more attention he paid to the entire ordeal, and that was never good. It wasn't like he was trying to ignore the problem; it was just that there didn't seem to be anything he could do about it. He'd turned the Archives upside down in hopes of finding a solution to his– symptoms, but nothing had come up just yet. Well, nothing past the usual biblical gibberish about death and destruction in the shadows. "I'm fine," he said, just as he had to Jack. "There's nothing to worry about."

At the corner of his eye, he could see them moving, shaping up, coming closer, and his heart was drumming in his chest. He remembered his training from One. _Look exactly where you don't want to look_.

Gwen's voice slowly faded out as Ianto focused on the shadows dancing just on the edge of his vision. Anyone else would think that it was just an illusion, a trick of the light, but not him. Not after everything that had happened in the last few weeks.

He turned to the side and the world shimmered in front of him for a moment before settling back down and his entire body went limp, which was exactly when he realised that he'd dropped the spoon in the pot and that he had followed it.

"Fuck!" Ianto spat out, taking his hand out of the scalding water and Gwen was immediately by his side, looking for first aid kits and fussing about and asking him just what the _hell _was wrong with him. She led him to the sofa, mostly without his realisation, and the only thing Ianto could think about was how much he would_ not_ like Jack to come home just now and see him in a right state after days upon days of reassuring that he was fine.

"Gwen," he said, voice quiet, when she sat him down and looked him in the eye, demanding answers. "I think I'm dying."

**o.O.o**

"So," Jack said once he was sure that his entire team was quiet and attentive enough to begin. "Today's topic is Ianto."

"The topic is always Ianto when Ianto isn't here," Owen pointed out and Jack glared at him, only to have Tosh lift her notepad.

"He's right," she conceded. "After all, I'm the one who keeps notes of the team meetings when Ianto is not here and..." she shrugged. "What is it? And why isn't he here, actually?"

"I told you all to come back at ten, didn't I? I just called you all earlier," Jack admitted and then gave a brief smile at Owen's groan of protest. Not that he was supposed to have a problem with it – he didn't sleep, did he? "But that's not important now. He's been– having problems and I think it's about time we addressed them. Gwen?"

Gwen nodded and stood up. Last night, Jack had met her as he'd come back with the milk he'd needed and had seen her walking out of Ianto's building. She'd explained to him what Ianto had told her as quickly as she could, but Jack hadn't mentioned anything to his lover as he'd come back. They'd had their diner and had gone to bed after that, and Ianto had allowed himself to be distracted by Jack's attentions enough to lose the haunted, slightly terrified look the Captain could see in his eyes for weeks now.

"He told me it's started the night we went to the Electro," Gwen started. "Something about shadows that went past him and it has been happening ever since. Just on the edge of his vision, as if they're not completely there, but he's found nothing on it. Just some stuff in the Archives about shadows being the bringers of death." She chanced a look in Owen's direction and he shrugged.

"It wasn't shadows with me," he said. "It was darkness. And Ianto isn't actually _dead_."

"Wait a minute," Tosh cut in. "I think I've got something on that."

Three pairs of eyes focused on her. Jack spoke first. "You do?"

"Yes," she nodded, already shuffling through her files. "After the case with the Night Travellers, I searched a bit more into it, tried to find where they were actually coming from. I haven't completed it yet, but I think they're actually human and the shadows you mentioned are some sort of transport."

"They're hitching a ride through the Rift?" Owen asked with a raised eyebrow and Tosh nodded, ignoring his scepticism.

"Precisely. As far as I know, when the Travellers first came through the screen at the cinema, Ianto was closest to them, wasn't he?" She received a nod from both Gwen and Owen. "Well, he must have picked up the signal."

"So what do we do?" Jack asked, impatient now that they were close to a solution. "How does he get rid of it?"

"It needs to be subtracted from his system," Tosh said, "but I'm not sure how–"

"_I_ am," Jack cut her off with a smile. "We have this pill, not unlike Retcon," he started going through the bottomless pockets of his coat, "that can take off any alien effect left on people."

"And you think he's just going to let you give it to him?" Gwen asked with a healthy dose of disbelief and Jack shook his head.

"No way. He's just going to keep insisting that he's fine and I'm exaggerating and go all 'I know what the side effects of these are, Jack'. I've got a plan."

The same night, after another long but less pressure-filled day at work, Ianto started down at his glass of wine with a frown. "That tastes a bit off, you know."

"I know." Jack's voice was quiet and he smiled, well aware that, just like the Retcon, this pill had a little useful addition as well.

Ianto's frown deepened and he leant onto Jack for support. "I'm– Jack, I'm not sure what's– I'm tired."

"I know," Jack repeated softly, taking the glass out of his hands and placing it on the table before wrapping his arms around Ianto. "I know."

Ianto's eyes slid closed and, with another small smile, Jack carefully got him to his bedroom. Where finally, his dreams could be unperturbed.


End file.
